I live in Yarmouth, a busy suburb of the Boston-Providence metro area. Nothing in my town, or anywhere on the Cape from the canal to here, has ever looked anything like that silly, romantic song. We are caught up in an expensive myth. Namely, that we cannot expect the same resources here that one would find anywhere else around Boston.

Our summer visitors all shop at Lowe's and Wal-Mart in their towns and then rush with their bargains to their seaside homes. Those of us here all the time simply pay more for everything.

We need to shed the mythic restrictions of Old King's Highway and Cape Cod commissions and face reality. Do doctors still make house calls? Did the milkman deliver today? Let's get real.